Nagpur: A prominent farmer activist Kishore Tiwari, who last week hit out at Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari over the steep penalties under the new Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), severed ties with BJP in Nagpur on Monday.
Confirming the development, Tiwari, the president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, said VJAS was an ‘associate member’ of the BJP for the last 10 years, but now they are no longer together.
“We have broken ties with BJP. I shall return to my activities for the welfare of farmers in Maharashtra and other parts of India. If required, we shall cooperate with Shiv Sena for resolving the suffering farmers’ plight,” Tiwari said.
In a recent interview, he warned Gadkari the stringent MVA penalties “are anti-people and could spur suicides in the country”. Tiwari’s statements had embarrassed BJP even as half the states in the country are either rejecting or toning down the MVA.
These include key states like Gujarat from where PM Modi and HM Shah hail, and Gadkari’s home-state Maharashtra.
